Shared Talent, a unique initiative from the CSF, encourages fashion designers to exchange expertise with other protagonists across the supply chain, transcending traditional divisions, be they linguistic, geographic, or discipline based.

In 2009, Shared Talent India brought together a diverse group of likeminded designers to share their ideas about fashion, challenge their motivations as designers and question how they create collections. Equipped with research carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, their collaborative concepts were realised with beautiful results.

Through partnership between the Defra led Sustainable Clothing Roadmap and the Indian Government under the UK:India Sustainable Development Dialogue, the Shared Talent India explored and shared knowledge on sustainable design practice. Those involved include twelve designers, based in both the UK and India, suppliers of Indian textiles, buyers and undergraduates from London College of Fashion, Pearl Academy of Fashion Delhi and Amsterdam Fashion Institute. The initiative aims to innovate towards improved ecological, ethical and cultural criteria in selecting and creating collections and to connect designers and buyers to more sustainable textiles in India.

Alex McIntosh, Business Support Manager at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, developed the website/online toolkit to help fashion entrepreneurs and brands establish a strategy for sourcing sustainability from India; the website also offers the opportunity to make contact with like minded suppliers and skilled craft groups.